The present invention relates to automotive warning safety systems and, more particularly, an electromechanical safety warning light device arranged on the inner metal fitting face of a vehicle door that flashes automatically like a hazard light when the car door is in an opening and/or opened position, thereby warning passing traffic of the danger of hitting the open door or the exiting occupants of the car.
When the occupants of cars open their doors on the side of passing traffic, their safety is at great risk during the day and most definitely at night. The present invention embodies a light-emitting safety system adapted to automatically draw attention to and highlight the opening and/or open door, thus warning passing cars and bicyclists (who also risk injury from impacting the car's open door) to take notice, slow down and maneuver accordingly to safely avoid the exiting car occupant and the open door itself.
This safety system will automatically activate warning lights as soon as the car door first opens, through the entire arc of the opening door, and will continue to illuminate the open car door until the car door is closed.
Currently, no similar safety warning device exists in the field. To date, car and truck manufacturers have not installed hazard lights warning of opening vehicle doors. Front and rear hazard lights warning approaching cars of a stopped or broken-down vehicle have become standard electrical equipment. However, there are no such factory-installed or low-cost, easy-to-install, after-market lights which warn an approaching vehicle of an opening or opened car door and an exiting occupant. Car manufacturers have been notoriously slow to develop additional safety features due to significantly increased manufacturing costs, although occupant safety has been a fast-growing area of interest for the public. This area of occupant safety—exiting as safely as possible from a car into passing traffic—has been completely ignored. Clearly, a real need exists in the field.
Statistics have shown that many people are killed or severely injured when exiting their cars on the side of passing traffic during the day and especially at night. There are also countless accidents involving bicyclists smashing into opening car doors especially in the dark. Hopefully many, if not most, of these accidents can be avoided entirely with the use of the present invention—a simple structure of flashing LED lights automatically powered by its own fully integrated replaceable battery and magnetic switch and independent of the power source of the vehicle—which warns approaching cars and bicyclists of an obstacle in their path. Most importantly, this safety warning device would impart a most significant and important level of needed protection for car drivers and their passengers as they exit their vehicle as well as for drivers and bicyclists passing nearby.